Law & Society

With the enactment of The National Water Act in 1998, all freshwater resources in South Africa were placed under the custodianship of the state. In effect, the state controls all use of water in South Africa and is responsible for protection of all water resources including the quality of all fresh water resources.

Various reports published recently, notably the Blue Drop and Green Drop Water Resource Reports have made public the facts that South Africa's resources are in a shocking state and are on the edge of collapse. Since it would appear that nationalization has only exacerbated the problems experienced by our water resources one cannot but ask the question whether privatization of South Africa's fresh water resources might lead to an improvement in the situation.
The National Water Act did to a certain extent envisage that entities other than the state would be involved in South Africa's freshwater resource management. For example the National Water Act provides for the establishment of catchment management agencies and water user associations. Catchment management agencies should be formed by all affected parties in a catchment and are to be responsible for water quality issues whereas water user associations should be formed by entities involved in water infrastructure and use development projects. The National Water Act envisages that catchment management agencies would be formed in all catchment areas in SA.

To date very few catchment management agencies have been formed with the result that many catchments do not have a holistic water management strategy in place. Water user associations have been successful in implementing water infrastructure projects, for example the Lebalelo Water Users Association. The Lebalelo Water Users Association is involved in infrastructure development in the Olifants River catchment and supply of water mainly to mining companies operating in the area.

These are fairly isolated examples of successful co-operative water management institutions. Generally in order to ensure acceptable quantity and quality in a water resource, enforcement of environmental laws must be in place from source to sea. For example, one plastic bag dropped at Ellis Park in Johannesburg ends up in the Jukskei which then flows into the Crocodile and into the Limpopo.

Every single discharge of industrial effluent and waste which goes unchecked adds collectively to the problem. The issue of municipal sewage works is one of the primary contributors and among the smaller municipalities there are very few properly functioning sewage works in SA.

The problem is therefore a complex one and there is no simple solution. However, in order to address the current problem certain steps are necessary.

The first step is to acknowledge the problem and to assess and provide empirical data on the extent of the problem. The foundation for this has been laid in the Blue and Green Drop Reports being prepared by the Department of Water Affairs. Further, other reports such as The River Health Program prepared by the CSIR give an indication of the quality of various water resources in SA and identify the problems that need to be addressed.

Secondly, the National Water Act needs to be carried out in the spirit and intent with which it was drafted, that is the equitable distribution of water resources. There are still too many vested interests and inequitable allocation of water taking place, such as for example, the planned allocation of some 500-million liters of water per day to the Medupi power station and surrounding developments to the detriment of the Crocodile and Limpopo water systems.

Thirdly, the government needs to involve the private sector where government skills no longer exist; for example the operation of sewage treatment plants. It will not help much if government gets the billions required to upgrade and maintain current infrastructure, but there are no skills in place to manage the funds appropriately.

Fourthly, certain water resources need to be designated as resources worthy of protection and designated as no-go zones for developers, such as the rivers of the Waterberg or the Drakensberg or the Eastern Cape. For these steps to be implemented a strong national regulator is necessary.

The answer seems to be therefore that privatization of our water resources would not be a solution to the impending water crisis. However, greater involvement of the private sector in the government's plans to address the problem would be a step in the right direction.